Pipes pump water mixed with sand into a well, for Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, using a technique, Tuesday, April 12, 2011, called hdro-fracking to release oil from shale formations deep in the earth at a well near Franktown.

The battle over what power local governments should have over oil and gas drilling swept through the statehouse Wednesday and out into a statewide campaign to defeat local-control ballot measures.

At the statehouse, negotiations on a bill to give communities a measure of control over oil and gas operations have reached a fever pitch as the end of the legislative session looms.

“We are trying to find a compromise between the oil and gas industry and local governments,” Gov. John Hickenlooper said in an interview.

Meanwhile, the industry and its allies are gearing up for a battle to defeat up to a dozen November ballot initiatives that would give towns and counties more power over oil and gas drilling.

The fight over local control in Colorado, simmering for more than two years, is poised to break into, in the words of one statehouse lobbyist, a “statewide food fight.”

While Front Range communities — Boulder, Broomfield, Fort Collins, Lafayette, Longmont and Boulder County — have passed drilling bans or moratoriums, the game is now being played from the Eastern Plains to the Western Slope.

“All other industries need to go through local regulation, but the oil and gas industry argues they should only be regulated at the state level,” said Russell Mendell, campaign director for Frack Free Colorado, a co-sponsor of one initiative.

“People are feeling disenfranchised with the influence of money in politics,” Mendell said.

But Greeley Mayor Tom Norton said the ballot “proposals have nothing to do with local control, but are actually about shutting down any business someone may not like.”

Especially irksome to business groups is ballot question 75, which would allow citizens to pass rules that can “define or eliminate the rights and power of corporation or business entities,” even if those rules supercede state and federal law.

Norton is a co-chairman of a group of business and political leaders from across the state that announced Wednesday they are reviving a campaign coalition — Coloradans for Responsible Reform — to defeat the ballot measures.

Against this backdrop, a few lawmakers and Hickenlooper are trying to broker a deal that would address some local control issues, but avoid the most sweeping powers proposed by the ballot measures.

“Our goal is to get a deal done before the end of the session,” Hickenlooper said. “In the next day or two, we will know if it is going to happen.”

U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, a Boulder Democrat who has been a critic of the oil and gas industry in Colorado, said in a statement Wednesday that “a legislative solution is the best option for Colorado and I hope that our elected officials in Denver are able to come to an agreement.”

“If they do not,” he said, “I am prepared to support a ballot initiative to address this increasingly urgent situation.”

The dozen potential ballot initiatives would amend the state constitution to do things such as mandate setbacks of drilling rigs from homes and give more power to local government to regulate operations.

“These are wrongheaded measures,” said Ken Salazar, a former U.S. senator and secretary of the Interior who, like Norton, is co-chairman of CFRR.

Though self-described as a citizens brigade, the coalition includes politically powerful organizations such as the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce; Colorado Concern; Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry; Action 22; Club 20; and Progressive 15.

The coalition, funded by member contributions, will coordinate its voter outreach with separate campaigns backed by the oil and gas industry, said Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce CEO Kelly Brough, a CFRR co-chairwoman. Other co-chairs include former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb and Concern Colorado chief Tamra
Ward.

“This is no surprise,” said Kelly Giddens, a spokeswoman for Citizens for a Healthy Fort Collins, a co-sponsor of a proposed ballot initiative. “We knew industry would fight back.”

“We don’t think that the mailers, the robocalls, the TV commercials are going to sway voters,” Giddens said. “People are more sophisticated than the industry thinks.”

Two ballot initiatives would give local government power over all aspects of oil and gas development, and four would increase the setback requirement for drilling from three to five times the current 500 feet.

Others would enable communities to enact laws more restrictive than state standards or grant citizens the right to sue for enforcement of environmental laws.

The two comprehensive local -control measures are facing legal challenges about whether they comply with state law.

“The ballot initiatives will have both sides spending many tens of millions of dollars. Every time you turn the TV on, you’re going to see an ad,” Hickenlooper said. “I am not sure that is the best way to settle something.

“If you go to a statewide ballot, you end up with 30-second sound bites.”

Meanwhile, at the statehouse, the negotiations over a possible local-control bill have included such topics as giving communities some flexibility on setbacks, the right to regulate nuisance issues — such as noise and light — and the ability to do local inspections, according to people who have reviewed drafts.

“We’ve tried to get people with differing points of view talking to each other,” said state Rep. Su Ryden, D-Aurora, who has been involved in the statehouse negotiations.

It takes a minimum of three days to get a bill through the legislature, Ryden said. As of Wednesday, there were five days left in the session.

“I don’t know if the whole legislative effort was to head off the ballot measures, but that train has left the station,” said Andy Karsian, legislative coordinator for Colorado Counties Inc., which represents the state’s 64 counties.

“We are going to have a discussion about local control in November,” he said.

Aldo Svaldi has worked at The Denver Post since 2000. His coverage areas have included residential real estate, economic development and the Colorado economy. He's also worked for Financial Times Energy, the Denver Business Journal and Arab News.

As news of the deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, unfolded last week, Pia Guerra, a 46-year-old Vancouver-based artist, felt helpless. She couldn’t bring herself to go to sleep, so she began to draw.

Police who find suspected drugs during a traffic stop or an arrest usually pause to perform a simple task: They place some of the material in a vial filled with liquid. If the liquid turns a certain color, it’s supposed to confirm the presence of cocaine, heroin or other narcotics.